Door opening and closing mechanism for elevators



H. C. CRANE Maw, 19, 1940.

DOOR OPENING AND CLOSINGMECHANISM FOR ELEVATORS Filed March 2, 1939 2Sheets-Sheet 1 'hveTn'or H. C. C Tahe Maud-r19, 1949. H. c. CRANE2,193,860

DOOR QPENING'AND CLOSING MECHANISM FOR ELEVATORS Filed March 2, 1939 2Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Mar. 19, 1940 UNITED STATES PAT ENT OFFICE DOOROPENING AND CLOSING MECHANISM FOR. ELEVATORS Harold C. Crane, Toronto,Ontario, Canada, as-

signor to Turnbull Elevator Company Limited, Toronto, Ontario, CanadaApplication March 2, 1939, SerialNo. 259,483 In Canada February .11,1939 Claims.

" breaking the toggle and then look. it tightly without slack to the cardoor.

I attain my objects by'means of the constructions hereinafter described,and illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which :Fig. '1 is afront elevation of the mechanism on the car door;

Fig. 2 a section .on the line 2-2 in Fig. 1, showing also part of thevco-operating mechanism of the hatchway door;

Fig. 3 a side elevation of the hatchway door mechanism .withthe doorremoved; and

Fig. 4 a diagrammatic front elevation of part of the car door mechanism.

The car is illustrated .as .slidably mounted in .25 a shaft on .guiderails. on the shaft wall 21.

Although two co-operating doors may, and usually are used, for the sakeof simplicity a single sliding car door 5 is shown which in its closedposition meets the fixed wall 26 of the car.

30 On the car is mounted the main door operating lever I which is'pivotally connected to the bottom car supporting beam 29 and isoperated in the ordinary way and which is connected to operate a slide 2whichcarriesa movable clutch 335 member 6 adapted taco-operate with aclutch member 9 fixed to the car door 5 and which clutches are adaptedto engage two rubber rollers 'I and 8 pivoted on the hatchway door oneover the other. One of these rollers-is fixed 40 relative to thehatchway door 25 but the other one isso arranged thatit has a travel ofabout an inch and a half, this travel being utilized to pick up the halldoor without shock'and at the same time break the toggle I5 holding thedoor L-shaped lever I2 pivotedat its lower end at I3 onthe car door andhaving a rod A pivotally connected with its upper end, which rod .Aextends through a lug C secured to the car door.

On this rod is threaded a nut Bwhich bears against the side of the lugand provides an adjustable abutment determining the position of thelever system relative to the slide and the position of the movableclutch relative to the fixed clutch. A spring B bears against theopposite side of the lug and a collar E is threaded on the end of therod A and serves to permit the door to travel slightly ahead of the dooropen ing lever system at a point in its opening and M closing movement,for a purpose hereinafter "15 explained.

The connection between the main lever I and the slide is necessarilyarranged to allow for the arc-like movement of the main lever. Referringparticularly to Fig. 1, .it will be noted that the 20 upper end of thislever is secured to the slide 2 by means of a device 3 which comprisesan arm 3 pivotally connected to the lever I and ad justably secured to apin 3 which is slidably mounted in a bracket 3 which is secured to the521,

slide 2. The slide 2 is slidably mounted in brackets 4, 4 so that whenthe lever I is moved to the right to open the car door the slide 2slides in the brackets 4, 4, which are mounted on the outer side ofthedoor 5 of. the elevator.

Mountedat oneend of the slide 2 is the clutch member 6 so that it moveswith the slide. This clutch is pivoted on a vertical axis on a bracketI4 which is bolted to the slide 2. The clutch is .in the form of arectangular plate with an inwardly turned engaging end and its upper andlower edges are bevelled so that the clutch member may swing in when thebevelled edges meet any obstruction, thus avoiding breakage.

A further purpose for providing that this clutch 40 2 will swing in isthat it .may be manually moved out of the way to permit the car door tobe moved relative to the hall door'if it is desiredto get atthemechanism for adjustment or repairs. A second or fixed clutch 9 ofsimilar construction is also provided. This is mounted on a bracket I5which is bolted to the car door and is mounted to swing in the samemanner as the clutch 6.

'Theclutch members 6 and 9 are of considerable length to ensure theirsatisfactorily passing up on either .side of the rollers I and 8 intoproper position. for .the opening operation, and are normally pressedout by springs 6 and 9 The rollers I and 8 hereinbefore referred towhich are mounted on a plate 25 on the hall or hatchway door 25 and theother mechanism for the operation of the hall door are arranged asfollows: Referring particularly to Fig. 3, it will be understood thatthe roller 8 is fixedly mounted on the hall door facing the mechanism onthe car door. Similarly positioned is the roller 7 which is secured tothe arm 2| pivoted on the hall door at 22 and adapted to engage anadjustable back stop 23. This stop 23 will usually be adjusted toposition the roller with its center about A to the left of the center ofthe roller 8.

The cam arm I9 is pivoted at one end to the toggle lever I5 at I8 and atthe other end to the adjustable toggle lock arm 2i] which is alsopivoted to the toggle and which serves to adjust the position of the camarm i9 relative to the arm 2|. The toggle lever 15 is pivotallyconnected at Il to the wall 2'! of the elevator shaft and at I8 to thehall door and is pivoted centrally at It where it may be brokeninitially by pressure applied to the toggle lock arm by the arm 2Ithrough the medium of the cam arm I9.

An adjustable stop 24 prevents the toggle breaking downwardly.

The mode of operation is substantially as follows: With the lever I inthe position shown in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings, the car door andthe hall door are entirely closed. The first movement of the lever I tothe right, as viewed in the drawings, moves the slide 2 and with it theclutch member 6 connected thereto. The door at first moves at arelatively slower speed than the end of the lever I which first swingsthe arm I upwardly and rocks the link I! and lever I2, moving the leverI2 and rod A in the direction of travel of the lever I, but at a slowerspeed, and causing the car door which is slidably mounted on theelevator, to move by engagement of the .nut B with the lug C. Continuedswing of the lever I to the right, however, straightens out the link IIand ultimately brings it into alignment with the direction of movementof the lever I, causing it to pull the lever I2, the rod A, and the doorat substantially the same speed as the upper end of the lever I.

During the initial movement of the lever l to the right, the slide 2,which is directly connected to the lever I, moves to the right morerapidly than the car door, causing the clutch 5 to engage the roller i,move it into alignment with the roller 8 and clamp them against theclutch 9, thus breaking the toggle I5 on the hatchway door as previouslydescribed. After the rollers have been so clamped, the clutch 6 and thecar door travel at substantially the same speed so that the relativepositions of the clutch 8 and the clutch 9, which is secured to the cardoor, are maintained for the greater part of the forward and backwardmovements.

It has been said that, after its initial movement, the clutch 6 duringthe opening and closing movement of the door travels at substantiallythe same speed as the car door and the clutch 51, holding the rollers Iand 3 clamped tightly together, and thus positively locking the car andhatchway doors together without backlash.-

However, owing to the relative arrangement of the mechanism operatingthe clutch 6 and the car door (and clutch 9) respectively, during thegreater part of the forward and backward movement the clutch 6 travels alittle ahead of the car door. In Fig. 1 there is shown in dotted linesthe approximate relative positions of the various parts of car dooroperating mechanism after the lever has been moved to the right. Thisshows that the car door does not maintain the same relative position tothe clutch 6 as it had at the commencement of the opening movement.There is, in fact a definite lag. This would ordinarily developexcessive pressure on the rollers "I and 8, which would cause themechanism to jam or break. To relieve such pressure, the spring D,described above, is provided. This spring permits the car door to runahead of the car door operating mechanism I, Iii, II, iii and A, whileat the same time exerting sufficient retarding pressure to retain theclutch 8 in engagement with the rollers I and 8 thus keeping the twodoors constantlypositivelyinterlocked and returning the nut B toengagement with the lug C at the latter part of the closing movement.

The return movement of the lever I actuates the rod A to the left, asviewed in the drawings. The compression of the spring D against the lugC actuates the car door thus giving an easy start and resilient drive tothe door. The clutch 6 is positively actuated in the return direction,maintaining substantially the same relationship to the clutch 9 as inthe opening movement. Final movement of the lever I to the left returnsthe link II with the parts attached thereto to the initial position withboth doors closed and the clutch 6 positioned spaced from the clutch 9,permitting the hall door to be locked by the movable roller I whichtakes up the position which permits the toggle arm I5 to straighten outand hold the hall door closed.

What I claim as my invention is:

l. Mechanism for opening and closing hatchway doors and car doors ofelevators, comprising means for opening the car door; a clutch member;means operable by the car door opening means for moving the clutchmember with but initially faster than the car door; a clutch memberfixed on the car door and spaced from the relatively movable clutchmember; a member mounted on the hatchway door for limited movementrelative thereto and normally positioned between the said clutch memberswhen the car is at a landing; and a toggle lock arm adapted to beactuated by the relatively movable hatchway door member to break thetoggle, the relatively movable clutch member during its initialrelatively fast movement engaging the relatively movable hatchway doormember and moving the same to cause it to actuate the toggle arm andbreak the toggle and clamp the said hatchway member against the fixedclutch member.

2. Mechanism for opening and closing hatchway doors and car doors ofelevators, comprising meansfor openingthe car door; a clutch member;means operable by the car door opening means for moving the clutchmember with but initially faster than the car door; a clutch memberfixed on the car door and spaced from the relatively movable clutchmember; a member fixed to the hatchway door; a member mounted on thehatchway door for limited movement relative thereto and normallypositioned between the said clutch members when the car is at a landing;and a toggle lock arm. adapted to be actuated by the relatively movablehatchway door member to break the toggle, the relatively movable clutchmember during its initial relatively fast movement engaging therelatively movable hatchway door member and moving the same to cause itto actuate the toggle arm and break the toggle and clamp the said fixedand relatively movable hatehway door members in vertical alignmentagainstthe fixed clutch member.

3. Mechanism for opening and closing hatchway doors and car doors ofelevators, comprising a lever for operating the car door; a memberslidably mounted on the car door and operated directly by the car dooroperating lever; 21. system of links and levers connecting the operatinglever with the car door whereby the initial opening and final closingmovement of the car door is relatively slower than the correspondingmovement of the slidably mounted member; a toggle lever for locking thehatchway door; a toggle lock arm; and a swingable member mounted on thehatchway door, said member being connected to the toggle lock arm atitsfree end; and means whereby the slidably mounted car door member, duringits initial relatively fast movement, is adapted to actuate theswingable hatchway door member to swing the samev to actuate the togglelock arm to break the toggle.

4. Mechanism for opening and closing hatchway doors and car doors ofelevators, comprising a lever for operating the car door; a memberslidably mounted on the car door and operated directly by the car dooroperating lever; a system of links and levers connecting the operatinglever with the car door whereby the initial opening and final closingmovement of the car door is relatively slower than the correspondingmovement of the slidably mounted member; a member fixed to and movablewith the car door; and a member mounted on the hatchway door andnormally located between the fixed and relatively movable car doormembers, whereby the initial relative fast movement of the latter cardoor member will clamp the said hatchway door member against the fixedcar door member providing a positive locking engagement between the cardoor and the hatohway door during all but the initial opening and finalclosing movement of the doors.

5. Mechanism for opening and closing hatchway doors and car doors ofelevators, comprising a lever for operating the car door; a memberslidably mounted on the car door and operated directly by the car dooroperating lever; a system of links and levers connecting the operatinglever with the car door whereby the initial opening and final closingmovement of the car door is relative ly slower than the correspondingmovement of the slidably mounted member; a member fixed to and movablewith the car door; a member mounted on the hatchway door and normallylocated between the fixed and relatively movable car door members,whereby the initial relative fast movement of the latter car door memberwill clamp the said hatchway door member against the fixed car doormember providing a positive locking engagement between the car door andthe hatchway door during all but the initial opening and final closingmovement of the doors; and spring means in the lever and link system torelieve excess pressure on the hatchway door member resulting fromdifferences in the speed of movement of the relatively movable and thefixed car door members.

HAROLD C. CRANE.

